NEW YORK – Rolling Stone magazine admits what it calls a “revelation” about “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert’s sexuality should surprise fans far less than Lambert’s second-place finish during the popular reality show’s most recent season. Nevertheless, in its next issue the magazine forges ahead with the disclosure as if the news were an electric eel on steroids: Lambert is gay.
“I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay,” Lambert told the magazine for an interview that appears in the issue due to hit newsstands this week.
Inside the issue — on which Lambert appears as cover boy — he “bares all,” according to Rolling Stone editors. Lambert discusses his childhood, “the drug-fueled Burning Man epiphany” that led him to audition for “American Idol” and what it was like to be a contestant.
He also tells Rolling Stone he wanted to avoid the Clay Aiken phenomenon. Aiken, a previous “American Idol” winner, was raked over the coals in many quadrants after he declined to confirm or deny whether he was gay, straight or something in between. A number of gossip tabloids speculated about Aiken in hateful tones.
“I’m proud of my sexuality,” Lambert told Rolling Stone contributor Vanessa Grigoriadis. “I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.”
However, he added, “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.”
Perhaps more interesting than his shocking sexuality revelation are Lambert’s “true thoughts” about “American Idol” winner Kris Allen (who is straight and married, by the way) and his ruminations about how their divergent sexualities affected their AI runs.
The interview is entitled “Wild Idol: The Psychedelic Transformation and Sexual Liberation of Adam Lambert.”
